Planet: Critical

On this episode, we discuss the global outbreak of chytrid, which is probably the largest global wildlife disease event in recorded history, with an expert on the front lines fighting its spread. Our guest is National Geographic Explorer Dr. Jonathan Kolby, who founded the Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center to study and save sick frogs. He also plays song recordings of the amphibians he studies and shares some positive news of disease resistance in certain populations and age classes of frogs. Plus we round up recent top news.

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Sarah Olson is a researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society and joins us at a moment when Ebola virus is very much in the news due to a recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A primatologist, Olson has lately been studying hammer-headed fruit bats to understand how Ebola is transmitted to apes and also humans — research which could potentially control or prevent future outbreaks of the deadly disease — beside revealing new details on the behavior of this fascinating species. Plus we round up recent top news.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

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We take a look at how the social sciences can boost conservation efforts with guest Diogo Verissimo, one of the top researchers focused on adapting marketing principles for conservation. A Fellow with the University of Oxford and the Institute for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo, he designs and evaluates programs that aim to change human behavior to combat issues like the illegal wildlife trade.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

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Dr. Thomas Lovejoy coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and his work since has helped establish the preservation of global biodiversity as one of the most important conservation issues of our time. We discuss this and some of the most important environmental issues we currently face and why he believes the next decade will be the last decade of real opportunity to address those issues: 

“We really...need to think about managing the entire planet as a combined physical and biological system,” he says.

Dr. Lovejoy is a conservation biologist, a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, and director of the Center for Biodiversity and Sustainability at George Mason University. In the late 1970s, he helped launch one of the longest-running landscape experiments in the Brazilian Amazon to examine the consequences of fragmentation on the integrity of tropical forests and the biodiversity they harbor.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and all support helps. Thank you!

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Sir David Attenborough says the superb lyrebird has one of “the most elaborate, the most complex, the most beautiful song[s] in the world.” In this episode we explore the incredible ability these creatures have to mimic sounds in their environment, ranging from predators and possums to squeaky trees and songbirds they compete with for forest habitat. Ornithologist Anastasia Dalziell joins us to discuss her trailblazing work with lyrebirds, and she plays amazing recordings of these spellbinding songsters.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and everything helps. Thank you!

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You might not think of beavers as remarkable, but they are actually brilliant ecosystem engineers whose dams mitigate flooding, improve water quality, and boost groundwater levels, and they also provide habitat for species like salmon, moose, and mink. Environmental journalist Ben Goldbarb joins us to discuss his fascinating new book putting a bright shine on beavers, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and everything helps. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

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On this episode we explore the latest revelations about “shadow companies” and dark money associated with the palm oil sector, and how they factor into Mongabay’s ongoing investigation into the corruption fueling Indonesia’s rainforest destruction and land rights crises (plus how these factors derail democracy in this huge country). Host Mike Gaworecki speaks with guest Phil Jacobson, Mongabay's Indonesia editor. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and everything helps. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

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On this episode of the podcast we discuss the increasing use of drones by wildlife lovers, researchers, and businesses, how these uses might be stressing animals out, and how drone users can make a meaningful contribution to science while avoiding wildlife harassment.

Our guest is Alicia Amerson, a marine biologist, drone user ("pilot"), and science communicator. She tells us why it’s critical to have best practices for drones in place not only to guide hobbyists making videos of whales or birds, but especially before companies like Amazon.com deploy fleets of drones in our skies.

Episode artwork of falcon and drone courtesy of Shane Keena Photography.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and all donations help. Thank you!

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Traditional indigenous knowledge and climate change is this episode's topic, with Snowchange Cooperative's Tero Mustonen: “Often in the past, science has been seen as quite [a] colonial tool by indigenous peoples,” he says. “We are trying to say that we are co-researching, and these knowledge-holders in remote communities are scientists of their own kind.” We also hear about Snowchange’s ecological restoration and solar power projects, the latter of which empower women and kids in remote indigenous communities.

If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, and all donations help. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

Image courtesy of Nathaniel Wilder, nathanielwilder.com.

Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

In this episode, professor Anne Axel of Marshall University makes the case for a new field of bioacoustics research: soundscape phenology, the study of cyclical life events of plants and animals via sound recordings. She'll be keynoting the biennial Ecoacoustics Congress in Brisbane, Australia later this month on the topic, and gives us a preview while playing just a few of the recordings that have informed this research from the forests of Madagascar.

We'd be very glad to have your support for this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep this show growing. Thank you!

And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or listen via Spotify.

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